Holy F**k

Holy F**k

Canadian electronic collective and noise innovators visit Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on Thursday 17 August for a long overdue return to the city. They’ll no doubt be debuting their new EP which is out later in the summer, as well as reviewing previous career highlights, incuding from last year’s stunning comeback album Congrats

Holy F*ck took the world by surprise around 2005 with their self-titled debut because there was just nothing like them—a hardcore thrift-store found-object punk band ...

Canadian electronic collective and noise innovators visit Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on Thursday 17 August for a long overdue return to the city. They’ll no doubt be debuting their new EP which is out later in the summer, as well as reviewing previous career highlights, incuding from last year’s stunning comeback album Congrats

Holy F*ck took the world by surprise around 2005 with their self-titled debut because there was just nothing like them—a hardcore thrift-store found-object punk band with a relentless commitment to rhythm and a sense for atmosphere better matched to a close encounter of the third kind than a simple rock concert.

2007’s LP followed and came close to securing Canada’s prestigious Juno and Polaris Music Prizes and won them festival slots at All Tomorrow’s Parties, Glastonbury, Coachella and more, and the praise of Lou Reed who said they were the best band he’d seen at SXSW.

2010 Latin, cemented Holy F*ck’s sound and reputation for unapologetic instrumental noise. At the end of yet another insane touring cycle, it was time to take a break … which turned into a hiatus … which turned into a chance to explore other projects and production work. (Like the bands Lids, Dusted and Etiquette, or production for Metz, Alvvays and Viet Cong.)

In 2016 Holy F*ck suddenly announced the release of Congrats, a surprise full-length two years in the making that is by any scientific measure their holiest f*ckiest release ever. Or as main man Brian Borcherdt put it “What gets run through our system is the seed of the idea for our music, and the system is what we play. This record is almost a beginning—the first stage of a new way for us.”

Congrats is the moment when Holy F*ck take the chaos and craziness and charm that have always been at the heart of their band and not so much control it as concentrate it. Now they’re heavier, wilder, leaner, sharper, more daring and more unpredictable than ever before. Congrats is the sound of a band doing absolutely everything right.